The Role of User Involvement, User Involvement Types, Product Category Involvement and Advertising Appeals in Social Media Advertising Effectiveness: A Middle East Context (Iran)

Abstract

Until now, no study has proposed strategies for social media advertising, scrutinizing the differential interaction of user involvement, different kinds of user involvement, product category involvement, and advertising appeals considering the unique characteristics of social media users in the Middle East. The present study addresses this issue by introducing two detailed advertising effectiveness grids in 20 situations for social media advertising in the Middle East context (Iran) and revised the previous grids and findings proposed for Western and Eastern countries in the area of traditional media advertising effectiveness. In all, 552 students of the University of Tehran, who are social media users were randomly selected, and questionnaires were distributed via an online platform. In order to explore the hypotheses, a mixed 2 × 2 × 2 factorial design was employed, followed by assessment of the validity and reliability of the measures. Surprisingly, some findings were contrary to traditional findings and grids both in the West and in the East and suggest different and new strategies; however, some were in line with traditional studies.

Does Online Dating Promotion Vary Across Cultures? A Cross-cultural Analysis of Homepage Advertisements of Online Dating Services in 51 Countries

“…Scholars and practitioners alike have acknowledged the important role that culture plays in determining the effectiveness of advertisements (Hornikx & O’Keefe, 2009; Pashna et al, 2019; Zhang & Gelb, 1996). Consumers internalise the values, beliefs and norms of the cultural systems in which they grow up.…”

Elements of Online Advertisements: Its Impact on Late Generation Z’s Purchase Intention

“…Perhaps two of the most common advertising execution strategies would be informational and transformational or emotional appeals. In a simple sense, rational advertising informs consumers clearly and logically by providing factual and relevant data ("the reason why") about the brand's benefit (Pashna et al, 2019). Belch & Belch (2013), as cited in Juniarti et al (2020), added that informational advertising tries to persuade consumers that their products or services have particular attributes that meet consumer needs.…”

Now I can see: how brand interactions influence channel loyalty and purchase intention in optical physical stores

“…The differentiation offered by retailers should meet customers’ needs, and the simplest way of retailer differentiation is through high-quality service (Gupta et al , 2018). Another way to differentiate is through the shopping experience, as the customer’s involvement in evaluating alternatives and the possibility of testing the product can be a differentiating element (Pashna et al , 2019). It is essential to know the customer’s perception to determine the satisfaction with the shopping experience (Lin and Cheng, 2015).…”